These Moments
by portable tragedy
Summary: He waited a hundred years for his favorite worldly tether. This is their life. Vignettes. Fluff. Kataang.
1. Chapter 1

_Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life-_ -Omar Khayyam

 _ **Today**_

"He's your favorite and I hate you both!" Kya slammed her door and her voice echoed, striking Aang as harsh and target-true as lightning.

Katara was there in the next moment, her hand on Aang's arm and then drifting up to cup his face. "Love, she doesn't mean it."

"She does, Katara. It's what she thinks." His grey eyes were devastated as they tracked from their daughter's door to his wife's face.

"Aang."

"I spend more time with him, I know I do. Training him. I feel such an urgency as if, as if.."

Katara hushed him. She knew what he felt, they'd talked of it many times before. He felt as if he needed to teach Tenzin everything as soon as possible, as if his time with their child would be too short to impart everything Aang had to teach him not just about airbending but about the Air Nation as well; the pressure, the pressure and this internal sense of time ticking down made him wildly anxious and too focused. "I know what you fear, sweetie. But you spend time with Bumi and Kya. Do you think I would allow you to be absent with our other children just because they aren't airbenders?"

Aang shook his head slowly. "You'd never let me get away with that, Sifu Katara."

That made her laugh and the knot she'd felt in her chest at his sadness eased. "Precisely, Pupil Aang. And you would never let yourself either. She is a typical girl her age and typical girls her age get jealous of their siblings and throw tantrums. But typical or not, she knows better than to speak to anyone so disrespectfully. By the spirits, her father is a monk!"

Aang finally laughed and tension ebbed, mostly, from his long, lean frame. Catching his wife's hand, he turned to press a kiss into her palm. "Alas, she has her mother's temper."

Katara gave him a look, her smile smug. "And don't think I'm not proud of that fact. Now, I'm going to have a word with her about this."

"Maybe I-'

"No. You'll melt into a puddle at her feet. You'll be giving her a ride on an air scooter and promising her something sweet for dinner to dry up the tears in her big blue eyes."

Aang slid an arm around Katara's waist. She was warm and strong and everything he ever needed. "I hate when blue eyes cry."

Her smile was indulgent and she pressed it to his answering one, brief and sweet. "You hate when anyone cries."

Not that Katara was immune to their daughter's unhappy face. Kya might look more like her mother but so much of that free spirit belonged to Aang. Unfortunately, Aang wasn't wrong and Kya had her mother's own temper. So, Katara steeled herself when she went into the almost-a-teenager's room.

Kya didn't look up from where she'd flung herself across her bed.

"Kya," Katara murmured and waited. And waited. And waited.

Until the silence broke with a flinging of a long body as Kya whipped around. Her blue eyes were wet with temper tears, her cheeks flushed. "He does love Tenzin more! He does!"

When Katara did not answer, but stared down into the angry-sad face, Kya huffed. "Mom. You know it. He spends so much time with him. He takes him on trips. He," tears, not just temper now, started streaming and her voice caught. "He could teach me to waterbend but he doesn't even try. He just has you do it. Bumi and me want to learn about the Air Nation. We're descended from them too!"

Katara's arms were quick to circle around her girl as she settled next to her on the bed. One hand soothed through the tangle of dark hair, pushing it back from the face that burrowed into her. "Oh, sweetheart. Your father loves you so much more than I can ever, ever tell you. But even though he was the last airbender before Tenzin and he is the Avatar, he's still a man and no man is perfect."

"I just-ju-just wanted to go with him. With them. I just, I just-why won't he take me too?"

How to explain that these trips with Tenzin were not just for fun and that they were dangerous. Aang didn't feel safe taking more than one of their children at a time, especially not with Tenzin so small. And how to explain that she'd messed up as well? Messed up by not insisting Aang take each of their children on solo trips, no matter his fear or his schedule. "He can't watch you both, love, not and be sure you're both safe. But you're right, you are, that I teach you but that is not because your Papa does not want to. It is because _I_ want to. I want to share this with you like I got to share it with your father and Granpa Pakku." Katara bent to press a kiss into her daughter's hair. "I've been selfish, Kya."

"No, you haven't." Kya sniffled and peered up at Katara with swollen, teary eyes. "You're the best Mom ever."

Katara laughed then, her own eyes feeling teary. "Oh, how I want to be the best mom ever for you and your brothers. But I make mistakes. And, don't tell anyone, but so does your dad. But, love, you and your brothers and me-we're his whole world, it all spins around us. He hates that he hurt you. Hates it everytime he leaves without us."

"Do you really think so?"

"My sweet girl, are you going to pretend you don't know why I'm in here instead of him?"Katara watched her daughter try to suppress a smile, her light blue eyes-caught between Katara's own bright and Aang's grey-went shrewd.

"No?"

At that Katara's grin flashed and she squeezed her smart girl tight. "It's good to know your strengths but your papa is not an enemy who's weaknesses should be exploited." Katara shook her head, looking down at that beautiful face and those too-knowing eyes. "You are going to be so dangerous, Kya. You know he would have begged forgiveness and promised you anything." Katara cupped her daughter's face; she could already see what a striking young woman she would be, the way her face was already starting to thin down. Too soon. How could it be? Just a moment ago she was just a wish. "But you and I also know that you hurt him terribly with what you said and you broke our family rules about how we speak to one another."

Kya looked down then, shame so alive on her face Katara could practically feel the burn of it in her own chest. "Mom. I-"

"No." Katara cut her off gently. "You don't owe me an apology as I'm not the one you said you hated."

Kya looked up, her eyes suddenly horror-struck. "I didn't mean that. I didn't mean it. I didn't-"

"Ssh. I know that and your father does too, logically. But the words still hurt his heart. It hurts that you could even think that for long enough to say it."

Kya's eyes filled again so Katara leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Hurting Aang's feelings was akin to kicking a koala-otter pup. He'd never lost that quality, that purity of spirit that made it sting so much worse to make his face crumple in pain. Noone was immune to the terrible pit of despair when you realized you'd been unfair and wounded him. "When you're ready, turtle-duck."

Kya sniffed and rolled her eyes, but she held on a little longer. "I'm almost 12, Mom. Dad was saving the world at that age and noone was calling him a turtle-duck."

Katara nodded solemnly, as if conceding the point. But she said, equally solemnly, "Though, your aunt Toph did call him Twinkle Toes."

When Kya snorted a laugh, Katra smiled again. "So, Twinkle Nose? Web-Toes? What should we call the waterbending daughter of Avatar Twinkle Toes?"

Kya giggled again and squeezed Katara hard. "Turtle-Duck is fine. _In private._ " Then, she took a breath and released her mother. Squaring her shoulders, she looked at her door. "I'd rather be gored by a Saber-Tooth Moose-Lion than see Dad sad."

Katara immediately volleyed back. "I'd rather be stung by a horde of vulture-wasps than see Aang sad."

Kya's mouth firmed and her eyebrows drew down. "I'd rather eat a two headed fish than see Dad sad."

"I'd rather sleep on a-"

The door opened and the man himself was there, staring pointedly at his two favorite ladies. He frowned lightly. "You had better not be playing Rather than Sad Dad Avatar."

Kya giggled, giving herself away while Katara rose to her feet. "Oh, no," she shook her head, "we definitely were not playing our favorite family game." Her hand drifted against his as she passed, their eyes meeting in a speaking glance before she slipped out. She pulled the door shut behind her.

Left alone, Kya's smile faded and so did her father's. They stared at each other for a long, full moment. Aang lifted a hand to rub at the back of his head, about to speak, when Kya blurted, "I don't hate you, Dad. I love you so much!" She threw herself at him and Aang caught her up, a little burst of wind bringing her all the way up into his arms.

"Kya. I love you too, brave girl."

"I'm so sorry I said that. I won't ever again. I promise!"

"Good. Good." He squeezed her close and buried his face in her hair, staving off tears. That was the last thing she needed. Reluctantly, he pulled back and sat her down. Then he knelt in front of her. "Now, I owe you an apology. I am sorry I made you feel neglected or like I loved you less because you are not an airbender. I love all that you are Kya. Your mother," Aang paused and took a breath, steadying his voice, "your mother is the only woman I ever loved. She gave me a family before I knew that I had lost mine. And then she gave me you. And you are a delight and a surprise and more than I had ever dared to dream of. Just the thought of you changed the world and created Republic City." Aang carefully wiped a tear from Kya's cheek. His children all knew that Katara's vision of their future family was responsible for the world they now lived in, where benders of every nation and non-benders of every nation could live and work and love together. "If I could choose, I would spend every day at Ember Island with my family, playing pranks and eating and flying and swimming."

Kya smiled, crooked and gleeful, "Mama would go crazy."

Aang sighed. "That's probably true, so we'd have to let her do something productive. But you and me? We'd play pranks from sunup til sundown. If we could."

Kya smiled at the pretend possibility, then placed a hand on her father's shoulder. "But you have responsibilities and so does Mama and so do Bumi and me. And Tenzin." She was slow to include her baby brother. They all knew his responsibilities. "But most of all we have a responsibility to love and help each other and to make the world a better, kinder place. I'm sorry, Papa."

"I'm sorry, too, sweetie. And I love you more than I love rice balls."

"More than you live riding elephant koi?"

"Definitely."

"More than you love Momo?"

"Well, let's not get carried away." Aang tickled her and she dissolved into laughter. This, this he realized wouldn't last much longer. But for now, just for now, he had the peal of her laugh and the shine of her eyes and the sturdy, vibrant life of his daughter- _his daughter!his and Katara's daughter!-_ in his arms.

Much later, after a squabble-laugh-filled dinner, after Katara tucked Tenzin in with stories of the water tribe and Aang told Kya about pie-throwing with Brother Gyatso, after he played pao shao with Bumi and answered letters for the Avatar while Katara whispered with their son about his desire to join the Navy-he'd be going soon, within weeks, Aang was sure-Aang watched Katara as she brushed her hair on the bench by their bed. He often did that for her, loving the way she leaned into him, the soft sighs she made as he pulled the brush through her long, dark hair. Sometimes they'd talk of the day's events, of their worries for their three children, of plans for the next day or next year. But tonight he watched her in silence and enjoyed the graceful bend of her arm, the line of her leg curled back under the bench on which she sat. He watched and he waited for her to rise, then he snuffed most of the candles lighting the room with a motion of his hand. When she slid under the light covers, he reached for her, the familiar curves of her body, supple and strong, melting into him.

"Aang?" Katara's voice was soft, that too familiar. His heart sped at the breathy sound of the up-lilting question.

"Mm. Yeah, forever-girl?" He nuzzled against her neck, stroked his hand down, molding the soft material of her sleep shirt to the dip in her waist, the flair of her hip.

"What-what are you doing?"

"After all this time and three children, you mean to tell me I need to explain?"

When she shoved his shoulder he laughed, nipped her neck playfully. "Mm. I want my wife tonight." He made a small dissatisfied hum against her skin. "Want is too small a word. Need isn't right either. I-Katara, I-"

Katara's mouth found his, finishing with sensual depth a sentence Aang couldn't have found the words for. "Be with me, husband."

After, her body slick with sweat and trembling against his, he held her tight, tighter. "Thank you," he whispered, voice rough and breathing still ragged.

"Aang," Katara half-laughed his name and leaned back to look at him. But her humor drifted at the intensity in his eyes. "Aang, what is it?"

"For Kya. For today. For Bumi and Tenzin and every kiss and every touch and every time we laugh and every single time you've scolded me. Thank you for being my family. For building a family with me." He took a shuddering breath, tipped his forehead to hers.

Katara lifted one hand to his cheek. "Aang, you're starting to scare me."

"No, no," he caught her hand, turned it so he could seal a kiss into her palm. "This isn't it, that fear that I won't have enough time. There could never be enough time with you, Katara. With our children. I love you all so much. _I love you_. Thank you for penguin sledding with me. Thank you for-"

Katara kissed him, quick and hard, cutting off the words that were making her heart race. "Aang. You really are scaring me."

He squeezed her hard, smiling incongruously to Katara's way of thinking. "I'm sorry. It's just today."

"Today?"

Aang nodded. "Yeah. Today I made love with my wife. Today I made my daughter laugh after she said she hated me. Today Tenzin fell off the air scooter for the thousandth time. Today Bumi was still here, talking about joining the navy. Today Appa flew with another sky bison. Today we ate papaya and you hate papaya and you pretended you didn't. And it's all possible because of today."

Katara was smiling, affectionate and bemused. Her husband-philosophical, powerful, legendary-was the sweetest, most confusing man. "Are you trying to sound like Iroh? You and Zuko have never quite got the hang of it. Today is possible because of today?"

Aang's smile was all the things she'd ever loved about him, glowing, glowing at her. "Yes. Today made today possible. Twenty-two years ago today _you_ made this all possible. Today is the day I stopped being the boy in the iceberg."


	2. Chapter 2

_Your hand can seize today, but not tomorrow;_

 _and thoughts of your tomorrow are nothing but desire.-Omar Khayyam_

 _ **Tomorrow**_

The moon was nearly full, the light a bright silvery wash over the snow. By tomorrow night it would not be almost, instead it would be a cycle complete. Emotion swelling in his chest, Aang pressed a hand there as if to keep it inside of him, as if he were not vessel enough to hold it. Tomorrow, under the full moon, Aang would be married: One cycle complete and a new one beginning.

Katara was inside her family's home now. He knew she wouldn't be sleeping, not yet, not under a full moon. Aang was supposed to be with the men-Sokka and Zuko, Iroh and Hakoda-but after they'd done manly things and taken a steam Iroh had drunk everyone to sleep. Except for Aang himself who'd merely taken a taste of the gifted Fire wine. He'd played pao sho until Iroh noticed the airbender couldn't stop looking out the window, across the snow and up to the moon.

"My young friend, I think this old man must sleep also if I am to be prepared for your wedding tomorrow."

Aang knew it for a lie but he stood and bowed in the way of the Fire Nation. "Thank you, Uncle. I want-"

"The moon calls tonight to all waterbenders, I think. Surely you should be outside, under it. But it only makes this old fire bender sleepy." Iroh winked, rising from the table and shuffling past the couches where Zuko and Sokka were sprawled.

Aang had covered them both with furs hours ago and wondered now if Iroh had drunk them into passing out so he could have the room to himself. The thought made him smile. But, then, he'd turned towards the doors and the moon and the courtyard beyond.

Katara was there already, dressed lightly in spite of the cold, her body moving fluidly through bending forms. She brought the water in the courtyard fountain up and held it, pulsed it like the ocean's ebb and flow. She was, Aang thought, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

"Aang, are you going to watch or join me?"

Her voice was lovely and warm as it carried across the crisp night. Of course she knew he was there. The moon was full and she could feel his his heartbeat, recognizing the pulse of it like Toph recognized their steps on the earth.

Instead of words, he walked forward, light on the snow as only an airbender could be. When he stood facing her, he spread his feet and then he mirrored her movements. There was intimacy to this, in any team bending, but particularly here and now, with her. Their eyes met and locked. They did not speak of what they wanted the water to do but rather felt, between the two of them, their power and their desire. The moves became more complicated, the water twisting and dancing, freezing like lace before falling in a soft shower of snow. The moves became faster, the two jumping and twisting, not unlike the dance they'd done in a fire nation cave long ago. When he caught her against him the water slid back into the pool and their mouths slid together. Her skin, like his, was warm, sweat-slick. Her body fit to his, both soft and strong.

When he pulled his mouth from hers, one hand was gripped in the fabric at her hip and the other in the wave of her dark hair. Aang pressed his forehead to hers, her blue eyes shining as if the moon were caught there in them. "Katara," he breathed her name like a prayer.

She answered it with his: "Aang."

Want was alive between them, he could feel it racing through her, the pounding of her heart, the ragged edge to her breathing. They matched his. "I need you, Katara, now and always."

Her smile was slow, powerful and sensual. "And you'll have me. Tomorrow. And always."

Aang laughed then, joy bubbling up with the desire. "How can I wait?"

Katara laughed too and the hands that had been clinging smoothed; they were sure and firm as the slid over his back, his ribs, his hips. "You waited a hundred years. There's only one more day."

"One hundred and six years," he corrected and then he had to kiss her again. He was the Avatar, the spiritual leader and peace bringer, a pacifist raised by monks. He was not gentle in that kiss. She pulled his hips into hers and he lifted her, with just a little push of air, so they aligned perfectly. He bit her lip and relished the low moan, suckled her tongue and groaned when she teased his into her mouth.

She was the one to pull away this time, tipping her head back and gasping in the cool air. So Aang found her throat with his mouth, he licked and kissed. Her legs curled around his hips and they pulsed together. The water in the fountain pulsed with them, churned with the depth and power of their emotion.

"Aang," Katara's voice wasn't the clear bell of command she used when speaking to crowds or the sharp whip when she needed order in a healing situation, it wasn't shy or sweet. It was his, the voice he only ever heard from her in private, intimate and thick with need. Her arms left him then: the nails that had drug over the arrow on his scalp, the hand that had balanced on his shoulder as she wrapped around him drifting away. She threw her arms out suddenly; leaned back, trusting him to catch her, hold her. Like she'd caught him. Held him.

"My husband, Avatar Aang, Airbender, Pie-Thrower, Unagi Rider!" Katara cried out to the moon, laughter and pride and desire tangled up in the declaration.

Aang answered, laughter preceding his own cry: "My wife, Katara, Daughter of Chief Hakoda, Master Waterbender, Master Healer, Stealer of Pirate Treasures" their eyes met and the grins they shared were wicked, but then, but then: "Katara the Brave, lover in joy and in sorrow, my favorite wordly tether."

Her own face soft she leaned in, her hands, gentle and slim, smoothed his face, cupped his jaw. "Aang," she sighed over his lips then settled hers to his feather light.. "My Aang. Mine to protect and to love and to share with the world. I will always be your home."

"Promise, forever-girl?"

"Promise."

As they kissed again, lips soft, hearts quieting, another voice rang out: "Yeah, yeah. You're getting hitched! Can you to go to bed already? Some of us are trying to sleep!"

And the kiss dissolved into guilty giggles as Toph's shout was met with shushing from somewhere inside. "Katara, tomorrow, after the wedding," Aang whispered as she slid down his body, still shaking with the laughter she was trying to keep quiet, "will you go penguin sledding with me?"


	3. Chapter 3

_When I want to understand what is happening today or_

 _to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back. -Omar Khayyam_

 _ **Yesterday**_

Aang stood at on a cliff's edge of Air Temple Island, staring up and up at the temple. Yesterday he'd finished it,shaping rooms and walls and deep window ledges. He'd brought the island out of the sea nearly a month ago and there was still work to be done, but the temple spiraled up against the blue sky and the dark sea.

Others, experts in their crafts, were coming. But he'd done this. An island. A new air temple. The air acolytes that would keep faith with his culture.

He felt Katara move to his side, standing with their arms brushing. "It's beautiful, Aang."

"It's not nearly done," he murmured, finding her hand and twining their fingers.

He could all but hear the smile in her voice when she repeated, "It's beautiful, Aang."

Aang looked down at her then, but his wife's chin was tipped up, her eyes fixed on the tower of the temple. "You don't have to stay here while we're finishing it, Katara. You could go to the Fire Nation Palace or Appa and I could take you to the South Pole, so you'd be comfortable." He settled his free hand on her stomach, it was just barely rounding. No one knew yet. No one but him and her. Their first child and he'd wanted a home close to Republic City, wanted a place for the last of the nations to integrate but knowing airbenders-to tend to their spirituality-would always necessitate being a part.

"Did you or did you not burst into our rooms yesterday and say: 'I finished it, Katara. You have to come see. I finished." When he started to speak she held up a finger and turned her gaze from the temple to his big grey eyes. "And was it not nearly midnight? And did you not get your pregnant wife up out of her very soft bed and wake up Momo and have Appa fly us straight here to see it?"

She paused. Aang opened his mouth to speak. She interrupted and he knew, he knew it had been purposefully timed. It made it hard to suppress a smile.

"And did you not say that we had a home, now, so I wouldn't have to stay in rented or borrowed rooms if I wanted to be near you when your work brought you to Republic City? And that I wouldn't be stuck in the South Pole when I was too pregnant to travel and you had negotiations here, so that you could force people to come to Republic City so you did not miss the birth of our child?"

Aang opened his mouth to speak, expecting an interruption. She lifted her brows so he closed his mouth. When she didn't speak, his eyes narrowed and he tried again. "Katara," he left a long pause while she looked at him with those beautiful, shrewd blue eyes. "It is finished and it'll be months before its not safe for you to travel. So, in the meantime, you could go to Kyoshi or either pole or the palace. You'd be attended and comfortable."

"My husband will attend me and I'll be perfectly comfortable right here."

"Sweetie, you are pregnant." He pressed gently on her stomach.

She scowled. "Did you think I forgot?"

"Ah, no." Aang removed the hand at her belly and scratched the back of his head. "I just mean, you would probably enjoy having nicer, comfier things around you. You know. Since you're pregnant."

Katara rolled her eyes. "I will be happier making certain you don't forget to add the necessary things to train waterbenders as you may very well also have children that are waterbenders." Katara poked his chest when she said waterbenders and Aang took a step back. Katara followed, poking him again when she started her next sentence. "I will be happier knowing my husband is with me and watching me get big and fat and incapable of moving." Then again. "I will be happier knowing the man I love isn't sleeping alone in a half-finished temple with noone to help defend him if something were to happen!"

Aang caught the poking fingers and twisted the offending arm behind his wife's back. He was gentle but the action sealed her to him just the same. "In that case, let me show you what else I did yesterday."

With a few elegant motions of his hand they were rocketing up the side of the temple on an air scooter. Katara flung both arms around him and buried her face in his chest. He knew it was to hide her smile and not because she was afraid. Or maybe it was to sniff him because he was fairly certain she had and then she hummed.

He caught her hand the moment the air scooter dispersed and tugged her forward, excitement like fireworks in his chest. "Come see what I did."

When she stepped into the room she halted abruptly, tugging back on his hold. Aang twisted to see her eyes had gone shiny with tears and her free hand was at her cheek. "Aang. I..you..last night you didn't…"

He rubbed the back of his head with one hand. "I wanted to make it easy on you if you wanted to be back home." When her eyes narrowed he gave a half-laugh, cleared his throat, "back at your family home. But I was hoping you'd want to stay. I just didn't want to unduly influence you."

"How diplomatic, Avatar Aang."

"Ah," Aang wasn't sure about her tone and shifted on his feet. "Sure?"

Katara shook her head, glancing around the room. It was not the sparse thing he was sure she'd been expecting to align with the air nomad culture. Instead, the clean lines of the wood bed were softened by the thick mattress and the numerous blankets, water-tribe blue and white. There was even a fur across the foot of the bed and one on the stone floor. She shot her husband a look over her shoulder, quirking a brow, as she stroked the fur.

"Ah, Sokka thought you'd feel more at home if you had some furs. It is mostly too hot to need them but…"

"Thank you," she murmured, moving around the room. The curtains in the window billowed with the wind, they were the saffron of the air nomads. Above the bed there was a drawing, no, a painting. A painting of the fire nation spirit the painted lady. She whipped around, "Aang?"

His cheeks were hot. "I...asked an artist I know to paint you. I...described you the way I remembered when you…It's a really beautiful painting."

Katara made that humming sound she had when she'd sniffed him but kept turning; at every turn, Aang knew, she found things from their life together thus far, momentos from every corner of the world and photos of her and Aang, Sokka and Suki, and Toph and Zuko. He didn't need more than her and Appa, but his wife-his beautiful, understanding, water tribe warrior-would enjoy a nest feathered.

When she came to the crib he forgot to breathe. The wood was smooth, it bent and wound and looked as fluid as the water she had power over. "Where did you get this?"

Aang went to her then, curling one hand over hers on the rail and the other around her waist, cupping their child in his wide-palm. She was so tiny, his wife. It made him smile still to remember she'd been the one needing to bend down the first time they'd kissed. "I made it. I carved it with wind until...well. It was a tree that had fallen and it looked beautiful and Zuko had shown me his, when he was a child, when I was last there."  
"He did?" She interrupted, surprised. She twisted just a little and he had to take his chin off her head to look down at her. "Why?"

"He asked if we were...planning" Aang smiled remembering the awkward heat in the Fire Lord's cheeks. " I said I was hoping and he showed me the nursery. Said he'd have it ready so by the time our hopes were plans our children would always have a place with him as well."

"You've been keeping a lot of secrets, Avatar." Katara turned fully in his arms, leaning lightly on the curved wood of the cradle behind her. "Are there are any others you need to let me in on?"

"Just one." Aang bent, tipping his head until he could press his mouth to hers. He kept her trapped by holding onto the wind-worn rail of the crib. Katara made a sound, one of surprise he thought, when the kiss went hot from the moment their mouths touched. He leaned into her, into their heat. Smiled against her lips when she clung. "We have the island to ourselves for the next three days. We are not to be disturbed."

Panting, Katara pushed back. She was flushed, eyes dilated. Aang leaned down to take her mouth again, but she nudged him back. "Alone. We have three days alone?"

"I finished arranging that yesterday too." He was definitely feeling smug.

She was definitely looking pleased. "You had a very busy day. No wonder I didn't see you."

He smiled crookedly, nodding as he leaned in to nip her lips. "So why are you still so far away? I need to make up for lost time."

Katara laughed. "Simple. You're wearing too many clothes."

Aang took care of the fact that were both wearing too many clothes before carrying his wife to their bed. His breath caught when she lay back on the blankets, her hair a wild, dark halo around her head and her eyes glowing.

"You're beautiful," he whispered reverently, his gaze trailing her the way she had searched the room: He traced the elegant arch of her neck to the swell of her breasts, over the hint of the child in her belly and to her strong thighs. His hands followed his gaze, warm and light on her skin.

"Aang, please," she whispered, her voice echoing an ache inside of him.

As there was nothing he wouldn't give her, he moved over her body, surrounded her with his; for a little while, time didn't matter at all.


End file.
